Thursday, June 04, 2009

Ordinarily, I try to cram some wisdom into the prefatory remarks... today I'm feeling a bit lackadaisical, so I'll just mention that yesterday's call for an overnight decline in the DAX and other non-Strayan indices, came to pass... and for once we didn't have to wait days for it to do so. (Lately it has been uncanny how markets 'stretch' further than they ought to, in both directions. It doesn't make the analysis any harder, but it means being obliged to put up with an anus-clenching adverse move before things come right)

I'm not sure how many of you caught the fact (in the recent GDP data) that the government resived DOWN past datapoints, in order to try to pretend that the Strayan economy grew in Q1. Note also that the growth in Q1 was considerably less than the 'stimulus' payment... in other words, the government accrued about 1% of GDP in new debt, in order to buy itself 0.4% of GDP.

In fact, the growth in Consumption Expenditure was less than the aggregate value of the stimulus payment - in other words, we are in the same position as the US was (as mentioned by the late Dr Kurt Richebacher) where in order to generate debt-funded GDP growth, we need several dollars' worth of new debt in order to generate a single additional dollar of GDP.

The terribly sad thing is that a large slice of the inhabitants of Straya, still have some child-like (misplaced) faith in the pronouncements of the parasitic scum that inhabit the cesspool called 'parliament'. The people who still have that child-like faith, will soon discover that they face the same future as the child-like faithful of the Christian Brothers boarding school... that is to say, they are going to have a variety of unpleasant foreign objects shoved up their collective arse-holes.

It's a terrible thing, faith - but only if that faith is placed in corruptible human constructs; politics, religion, nation. I have faith in humankind in the broad sense, in that I believe that the vast majority of humanity are simple folks who do not seek to do any harm to anybody except as a defensive mechanism. But I also know that this massive majority have been used like livestock, by a 5% sliver of absolute fucking psychos (think 'Cheney. Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Howard, Blair, McBroon, Sarkozy... '). People of their ilk must be suppressed without mercy, in the same way as we would eradicate smallpox or Ebola if we had the chance.

Do you recall the lyric from Midnight Oil's "Power and Passion"... "It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees"? How gut-wrenching it is to see that the guy who belted out that lyric (and the lyric to "US Forces") is now a political slut-whore who is on his knees fellating the ALP whenever directed to do so.

Anyway - let's move on down to the day's action...

Major Market Indices

The broad market - the All Ordinaries (XAO) - dipped reasonably hard, registering a loss of 76.8 points (1.92%), finishing at 3932.5 points. The index hit an intraday high of 4009.3 at 10:00 am, while the low for the day was 3925.7 - set at 2:35 pm Sydney time.

Total volume traded on the ASX was 2.12bn units, 8.1% above its 10-day average of 1.96bn shares.The ASX's daily listing of all stocks included 1333 different 3-letter FPO's which traded (i.e., had non-zero trade volume). Of these, 429 issues rose, with volume in rising issues totalling 960.6m units; there were 594 declining stocks, which traded aggregate declining volume of 1.01bn shares.

Of the 500 All Ordinaries components, 148 rose while 259 fell. Volume was tilted in favour of the gainers by a margin of 1.1:1, with 790.32m shares traded in gainers while 752.02m shares traded in the day's losers.

The Index that forms the cash basis for the SPI Futures - the S&P/ASX 200 (XJO) - dipped rather savagely, losing 82.6 points (2.06%), closing out the session at 3934.6 points.

The "heavy hitters" of the Australian market - the ASX 20 Leaders (XTL) - was taken to the woodshed somewhat, sliding 51 points (2.11%), closing out the session at 2363.3 points.

Among the 20 big guns, 5 index components finished to the upside, and 16 lost ground. The stocks which make up the index traded a total of 232.19m units; 5 index components rose, with rising volume amounting to 94.1m shares, while the 16 decliners had volume traded totalling 138.09m units. The major percentage gainers within the index were

ANZ Banking Group (ANZ), +$0.48 (2.93%) to $16.84 on volume of 18.6 million shares;

Wesfarmers Ltd (WES), -$1.2 (5.25%) to $21.66 on volume of 5.4 million shares;

BHP Billiton Ltd (BHP), -$1.92 (5.18%) to $35.11 on volume of 18.2 million shares; and

AMP Ltd (AMP), -$0.23 (4.47%) to $4.91 on volume of 9.5 million shares.

The ASX Small Ordinaries (XSO) The small end of the market , while still dropping overall, did significantly better than its large-cap counterpart. The Small Ords registered a loss of 33 points (1.53%), closing out the session at 2127.4 points.

Among the stocks that make up the Small Caps index, 64 index components finished to the upside, and of the rest, 125 closed lower for the session.

The 215 stocks which make up the index traded a total of 479.12m units: volume in the 64 gainers totalling 184.39m shares, with trade totalling 258.34m units in the index's 125 declining components. The major percentage gainers within the index were

Market Breadth

GICS Industry Indices

Among the 11 industry indices, 3 registered an advance for the session, the remaining 8 lost ground.

The best performing index was Telecommunications (XTJ), which added 19.6 points (1.76%) to 1131.3 points. This index only contains 3 stocks; they traded a total of 71.51m units today. 2 index components rose, with rising volume amounting to 65.46m shares, while the sole declining stock traded 6.05m units. The major percentage gainers within the index were

Telstra Corp Ltd (TLS), +$0.07 (2.18%) to $3.28 on volume of 61.6 million shares; and

Second in the index leadership stakes was Utilities (XUJ), which gained 15.7 points (0.38%) to 4181.6 points. The 11 stocks which make up the index traded a total of 50.94m units; 5 index components rose, with rising volume amounting to 40.96m shares, while the 3 decliners had volume traded totalling 5.58m units. The major percentage gainers within the index were

Babcock & Brown Power (BBP), +$0.01 (5%) to $0.11 on volume of 16.8 million shares;

The bronze medal for today goes to Healthcare (XHJ), which climbed 11.8 points (0.15%) to 7715.9 points. The 10 stocks which make up the index traded a total of 13.2m units; 6 index components rose, with rising volume amounting to 7.72m shares, while the 3 decliners had volume traded totalling 4.63m units. The major percentage gainers within the index were

ISOFT Group Ltd (ISF), +$0.02 (2.21%) to $0.70 on volume of 2 million shares;

Sigma Pharmaceuticals (SIP), +$0.02 (1.95%) to $1.05 on volume of 1.1 million shares;

CSL Ltd (CSL), +$0.11 (0.37%) to $30.01 on volume of 3 million shares.

The worst-performed index for the session was Materials (XMJ), which dipped 486.8 points (4.5%) to 10339.8 points. The 45 stocks which make up the index traded a total of 261.33m units; The 40 decliners had volume traded totalling 244.99m units, and 4 index components rose, with rising volume amounting to 14.57m shares, The major percentage decliners within the index were

PanAust Ltd (PNA), -$0.05 (10.11%) to $0.40 on volume of 30.1 million shares;

Perilya Limited (PEM), -$0.05 (9.18%) to $0.45 on volume of 1.2 million shares;

Panoramic Resources (PAN), -$0.19 (7.79%) to $2.25 on volume of 2 million shares;

Minara Resources Ltd (MRE), -$0.07 (7.57%) to $0.86 on volume of 5.8 million shares; and

Sundance Resources (SDL), -$0.01 (7.14%) to $0.13 on volume of 17 million shares.

Just missing out on the wooden spoon was Property Trusts (XPJ), which slid 26.7 points (3.3%) to 782.6 points. The 21 stocks which make up the index traded a total of 744.59m units; The 15 decliners had volume traded totalling 161.32m units, and 5 index components rose, with rising volume amounting to 551.01m shares, The major percentage decliners within the index were

Third-to-last amongst the sector indices was Energy (XEJ), which slid 502.2 points (3.28%) to 14810.2 points. The 22 stocks which make up the index traded a total of 58.86m units; The 17 decliners had volume traded totalling 46.25m units, and 5 index components rose, with rising volume amounting to 12.61m shares, The major percentage decliners within the index were